


when we collide

by butterflysteve



Category: Coraline - Neil Gaiman, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Crossover Pairing, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-25
Updated: 2011-01-25
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:04:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflysteve/pseuds/butterflysteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were both covered in scars, only hers were imprinted on her soul whilst his were written on his body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when we collide

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a first kiss drabble I wrote for eudaimon starring Gale which turned out into something entirely unplanned.

_cause when my back is turned  
my bruises shine  
our broken fairytale  
so hard to hide_  
  
He watches her when he thinks she isn’t looking. He worries, they both do, about her but she’s stubborn and headstrong and she never tells him when something is wrong. Or she waits until it’s too late; she has a scar beneath her eye that haunts him-one small tiny dot that curls upwards. He hadn’t had enough time to stop her from being hurt but he had plenty of time to stop her from being killed. The small mark is a reminder of his failure to protect her, to protect the girl so like Prim.

She turned up that night, once the woman had been buried and crawled into bed with him. Her hands were small and cold on his skin; her face pressed against his bare back as settled beside him and fell asleep. She seemed like the girl he’d met, not the woman he knew. She tugged his beard the next morning, told him to shave and left. She didn’t come back that night or the night after. She watched him curiously though as if she were trying to figure something out. She was always looking for answers, he wasn’t sure if he had any left to give.

He failed her again; they both did when she found the bomb so like the one that killed Prim. He didn’t know which of them it was supposed to belong to, him or Katniss but he remembered the way she looked when she found it. She’d looked curious, a look of bright and fierce joy as she discovered it and was halfway to it when they saw her. Katniss had screamed, Peeta holding her back because he knew, clever Peeta that it would be too late but Gale didn’t know that. There was a chance and they had promised- swore to protect her like she was Prim. He didn’t remember what happened afterwards but he remembered the soft _oh_ she exhaled as he pulled her to the ground and covered her body with his.

She was crying when he woke, her cheeks stained with her tears as she tried to stubbornly wipe them away. She was always trying to be brave for him. He forgot for a moment, called her Prim but the skinny girl he remembered had long been gone and had been replaced by a young woman. She laughed when he joked about his beard, cried too and then she kissed him. He could taste the salt from her tears on her lips, she hadn’t meant to kiss him but she wasn’t taking it back. He wasn’t either; he pulled her into the bed with her until he could wrap his arms around her and keep her safe, secure, against his side.

Her hands clung to him afraid to let go as she drifted off to sleep and slept fitfully beside him. She didn’t believe she was worth saving, she didn’t believe she was worth the pain but she was worth every broken bone and every stitch. If she kept living, smiling, breathing one more day then it was worth it to him. Katniss felt something similar but it wasn’t the same- Katniss had Peeta and he had her.

When he woke he thought she’d run again, the clinic bed had been empty and cold. She came back though with a present of a shaving kit, smelling clean and her hair still damp from the shower. He’d laughed when she showed him her present and then waited, patiently, whilst her hands moved over his skin and she covered his cheeks and chin with white fluffy foam. She was gentle and careful but he still held his breath whilst she shaved him, he had never allowed anyone to do this not even Katniss but she never faltered.

His skin was smooth by the time she was finished, she caressed his cheeks before bursting out into loud peels of laughter. She hadn’t seen him without a beard before and it had been years since he’d seen himself so cleanly shaved. He looked ridiculous, like a twelve year old boy and it took him pulling her onto his lap to get her to stop. She’d stopped laughing then; she’d stared at him confused and curious before he kissed her and wiped that look off her face. This time this kiss wasn’t quite as chaste as he kissed her roughly and desperately. He would never fail her again; he would never break his promise to her.

She gasped as he rolled her beneath him, shifting his weight so he would not hurt her. She touched his smooth cheeks, sliding her hands into his hair as she tugged him close and kissed him. He hurt but it was a good hurt, he had saved her. His hands worked beneath her shirt, touching unmarked skin and sliding upwards to palm his calloused hand over her breast. She moaned then, whispering his name as her fingers pressed into the scars on his back. They were both covered in scars, only hers were imprinted on her soul whilst his were written on his body.

His lips moved to her cheek kissing the needlepoint scar beneath her eye, the mark where he had failed her and then down her face to her neck. She arched her back, pressing into his hand as he kissed and bit her neck. She was impatient, her hand pressing between them and grasping him making him shudder. She had always wanted to know now rather than wait but for once he didn’t want to make her wait. She was done growing up, she was a woman now and she was his girl. She was always his girl and tomorrow they could die; she had almost died because of him, because of what he had done.

He pulls at her clothes; her hands are shaky but sure as they strip down until there is nothing but their pasts lying between them. He is her first, she isn’t his and this is not how he would have chosen it for her but she is determined and stubborn. She is her own woman, she always has been but she’s always been his too. He makes her come first, her face flushed and his name on her lips before he’s spent, exhausted. He whispers her name, and she mishears him and laughs.

“It’s Coraline, Gale. Not Caroline.” She says, touching his cheek gently with both of her hands. She kisses him, the smile and the relief washing over her body as she laughs.

He smiles down at her. He could spend forever watching her laugh.


End file.
